3

Transference-The
Organization of Experience
(written in collaboration with Frank M. Lachmann)

Of the concepts introduced by Freud to illuminate human nature,

transference is the most encompassing. It occupies a pivotal position in
every aspect of psychoanalysis. It is pictured as the tidal wave of the
past that washes over the present, leaving its unmistakable residues. It
is invoked to explain bizarre acts of aggression, painful pathological
repetitions, and the tender and passionate sides of love and sex. First
seen only as a resistance to psychoanalytic treatment, it was later ac,
knowledged as its facilitator as well. Generations of analysts have
sought to use transference to distinguish analyzable from nonanalyz,
able patients. Finally, the concept of transference has been used to dig,
parage cures obtained by nonpsychoanalytic therapies and to excuse
failures encountered in psychoanalytic treatments.
Initially, the idea of transference was applied far more modestly.
Breuer and Freud (1893-95) ascribed what we now call transference to
a "false connection" made by the patient. They noted that this was
both frightening to the patient and a regular occurrence in some analy,
ses, wherein the patient transferred "on to the figure of the physician
the distressing ideas which arise from the content of the analysis"
(p. 302).
The image of the transference "arising" was consistent with the
"archeological" model implicit in much of Freud's psychoanalytic
theorizing, a model based on an assumption that the patient knew ev,

28
 TRANSFERENCE-THE ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE 29

erything that was of any pathogenic significance (Bergmann and

Hartman, 1976). Writing twenty years later, Freud (1913) still c o n ~
ceived of psychoanalysis as a technique whereby one digs into the u n ~
conscious and clears ever deeper layers: Psychoanalysis "consists in
tracing back one psychical structure to another which preceded it in
time and out of which it developed" (p. 183).
The archeological model has retained some hold on the clinical u n ~
derstanding of transference in general. More specifically, the very early
notion of a "false connection" has been preserved in considering trans~
ference a "distortion" of reality. Other explanations of transference as
regression, displacement, and projection, though consistent with a d y ~
namic viewpoint, still retain a residue of the colorful imagery of arche o ~
logical expeditions. The archeological model shows many of the
disadvantages of Freud's energy theory, in that psychological m o t i v a ~
tions and states are treated as though they were finite, palpable enti~
ties. How this has affected our understanding of transference was a
central concern leading to this chapter.
Bergmann and Hartman (1976) wrote:

Following Freud's emphasis on archeology as the model for psy~

choanalysis, psychoanalysts tended to see their work essentially
as a reconstruction of what has once existed and was buried by re~
pression. By contrast, Hartmann sees the work of interpretation
not only, or not even primarily, as that of reconstruction, but
rather as thc;~stablishment of a new connection, and therefore as
a new creation [p. 466].

In contrast with the archeological viewpoint, this emphasis on new

connections and new creations within the therapeutic process focuses
attention on the contributions of both patient and analyst. The focus
on the analyst's contribution to the analytic process, which is made ex~
plicit in our conceptualization of the psychoanalytic situation as an
intersubjective system, reflects a shift in psychoanalysis and in scien~
tific thinking in general. How we study a phenomenon affects and
alters it.
We turn now to a critical examination of formulations that tradi~
tionally have been employed to describe and explain transference.
30 CHAPTER THREE

CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF TRANSFERENCE

Transference as Regression

The traditional psychoanalytic view of transference as regression was

clearly enunciated by Waelder (1956): "Transference may be said to be
an attempt of the patient to revive and re-enact, in the analytic situa-
tion and in relation to the analyst, situations and phantasies of his
childhood. Hence, transference is a regressive process" (p. 367).
A survey of the uses of the term "regression" in psychoanalytic writ-
ings (see Arlow and Brenner, 1964) reflects the variety of ways, each
with vastly different meanings and implications, in which this concept
has been applied. Included are discussions of psychosexual regression,
topographic regression, structural regression, genetic regression, etc.
These different terms can be assigned to two general uses of the
concept-regression as a diminution in the level of psychological or-
ganization and regression as retrogression along a time dimension. No
doubt archaic modes of psychological organization in adults are re-
lated to the psychological organizations found in childhood. However,
these archaic modes are not identical with their manifestations and oc-
currences in the young child. To confine the concept of regression
solely to level of structuralization requires fewer unverifiable assump-
tions. With respect to transference, the concurrent influences of
various modes and levels of organization can be addressed, with full
recognition of their complex interplay, and with no assumption of a lit-
eral retrogression in time.
The assumption that adult relationships in their repetitive and
conflictual aspects are isomorphic reenactments of traumatic relation-
ships from the early history of the individual has enabled analysts to
link the current psychopathology, the course of early development
including its pathological variations, and the nuances of the patient-
analyst relationship, the transference. Careful observations of pa-
tients' transferences and inferences based on these have provided
analysts with data for reconstructions of specific genetic sequences and
for formulating an epigenetic theory. For these assumptions with re-
spect to temporal regression to be verified, it must be demonstrated
that inferences about childhood derived from adult analyses can be
validated independently and that modes of mental organization char-
acteristic of early childhood are sufficiently similar to archaic modes of
 TRANSFERENCE-THE ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE 31

organization as they emerge in adult analyses to warrant inferential

leaps from one epoch in the life cycle to the other.
Major challenges to the assumption that adult psychopathology re·
fleets temporal regressions to infantile phases of development are
found in recent observations of early infancy (Brody, 1982; Stern,
1985). There is now increasing evidence that the autism of adult schiz·
ophrenic patients has no counterpart in infancy. The postulation of an
autistic phase or of an undifferentiated phase is not supported by the
accumulating evidence. The adult psychopathology, therefore, cannot
be accurately described as a temporal regression to an earlier normal
phase (Silverman, 1986). Furthermore, when it appears that the autis·
tic adult suffered from similar states in childhood, regression is again
not an appropriate term, since the state has evidently remained pres·
ent all along.
Consistent with the findings from the infancy literature is the hy-
pothesis that the infant alternates between periods of oneness with its
mother, as inferred from synchronous action patterns, and periods of
disengagement (Stern, 1983; Beebe, 1986). Both patterns are charac·
teristic of the young infant; neither is primary or a precondition for the
other. Adult psychopathology that is characterized by a predomi·
nance of dependent clinging to maternal figures is often described as a
regression to a phase of early infancy- for example, the symbiotic
phase. However, prolonged or continuous periods of symbiosis are ap·
parently neither typical nor normative for the infant. Thus, symbiotic·
like wishes or fantasies may characterize adult motivation and may be
related to an early developmental period, but what the adult imagines,
yearns for, or enacts is not identical to what is typical of the young
child.
The idea of temporal regression is most frequently used with respect
to psychosexual development. Discussions in which psychopathology
is understood as a regression to oral, anal, phallic, or oedipal phases
presuppose that the predominant motivational priorities of the patient
are identical to those of the child in the earlier phases. There are two
questionable assumptions here. The first pertains to the linearity of
psychosexual development-the notion that in the adult earlier motiv·
ations are normally renounced or relinquished in favor of later ones. It
is assumed that maturity requires renunciation and that, indeed, such
renunciation is possible. The concept of temporal regression, there·
fore, implies a failure in renunciation. The second questionable as·
32 CHAPTER THREE

sumption is that an adult whose motivations are dominated by

psychosexual wishes and conflicts must be functioning like a child who
is traversing the corresponding psychosexual phases.
Restricting the concept of regression to the level of psychological or-
ganization clarifies its relevance for the transference. Analysts are
thereby alerted to the possibility that higher levels of organization,
which include self-empathy, perspective, humor, wisdom, and differ-
entiation between self and other, though not in evidence, can poten-
tially be revived or achieved. Analysts can also then better assess
whether more archaic organizations had previously been prematurely
aborted, precluded, or disavowed, so that their emergence in treat-
ment is a developmental achievement (Stolorow and Lachmann,
1980), or whether they serve to ward off other material. In all cases, the
analytic stance toward the emergence of archaic modes of organization
should be to promote their integration with other, more mature
modes, thereby enriching psychological functioning, rather than to in-
sist on their renunciation or elimination.
Included in the concept of structural regression are both defensive
revivals of archaic states and the emergence in treatment of arrested as-
pects of early developmental phases. In neither case can the patient be
said to have actually retrogressed to an infantile period. We can only
say that the patient's experiences, especially of the analytic relation-
ship, are being shaped by archaic organizing principles, either for the
purpose of defense, or in order to resume a developmental process that
had become stalled.

Transference as Displacement

The repetition compulsion and displacement are two closely related

concepts frequently invoked to explain the occurrence of transference.
To Freud (1920), the repetition compulsion, a biologically inherent at-
tribute of living matter, provided an explanation for the ubiquity of
transference phenomena. We will consider the issue of repetition later.
Displacement initially referred to a mechanism of the dream-work
(Freud, 1900) and neurotic symptom formation (Freud, 1916-17). Ac-
cording to Nunberg (1951), the patient "displaces emotions belonging
to an unconscious representation of a repressed object to a mental rep-
resentation of an object of the external world" (p. 1).
Assumed within this concept of displacement is Freud's economic
 TRANSFERENCE-THE ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE 33

theory-a cathexis being pushed along an associative path from an

idea of greater emotional intensity to a more distant one oflesser inten-
sity, from a place where discharge is conflictual and blocked to a place
where discharge is possible. For example, hostility initially directed un-
consciously toward the same-sexed parent in childhood may be dis-
placed to a superior at work. The presumed repetitive reliving of the
past in the present neither improves one's current life nor alters one's
perspective on or memories of the past. On the contrary, such reliving
of the past in displaced form is believed to perpetuate the archaic con-
figuration, until it becomes engaged in the analytic transference and
can be interpreted.
In our view of transference, there is nothing that is removed from the
past and attached to the current situation. It is true that the organiza-
tion of the transference gives the analyst a glimpse of what a childhood
relationship was like or what the patient wished or feared it could have
been like. However, this insight into the patient's early history is possi-
ble not because an idea from the past has been displaced to the present,
but because the structures that were organized in the past either con-
tinue to be functionally effective or remain available for periodic mobi-
lization. That is, these themes have either remained overtly salient
throughout the patient's life prior to the beginning of treatment or
have been providing a more subtle background organization which
the analytic process has brought to the fore.
The concept of transference as displacement has perpetuated the
view that the patient's experience of the analytic relationship is solely a
product of the patient's past and psychopathology and has not been
determined by the activity (or nonactivity) of the analyst. This view-
point is consistent with Freud's archeological metaphor. In neglecting
the contribution of the analyst to the transference, it contains certain
pitfalls. Suppose an archeologist unknowingly dropped a wristwatch
into a dig. If the assumption is made that anything found in the dig
must have been there beforehand, some woefully unwarranted conclu-
sions would be reached.

Transference as Projection

Analysts who draw upon the theoretical ideas of Melanie Klein tend to
conceptualize transference as a manifestation of the mechanism of pro-
jection. Racker (1954), for example, viewed transference as the projec-
34 CHAPTER THREE

tion of rejecting internal objects upon the analyst, whereby internal

conflicts become converted into external ones. Similarly, Kernberg
(1975) attributes certain archaic transference reactions to the opera,
tion of"projective identification," a primitive form of projection whose
main purpose is to externalize all,bad, aggressive self and object
images.
We define projection as a defensive process in which an aspect of
oneself is excluded from awareness by being attributed to an external
object, in order to alleviate conflict and avoid danger. To view trans,
ference phenomena solely or primarily as defensive externalizations
confines the explanation of transference to only one of its many possi,
ble functions and can lead to a serious neglect of its other dimensions
and multiple meanings. Once the transference is established, projec,
tion may or may not emerge as a component, depending on the extent
of its prominence as a characteristic mode of defense against the subjec,
tive dangers experienced at any particular juncture.
A particular difficulty with formulations of transference as an ex,
pression of projection is that they often obscure the developmental di,
mension of the transference. As we have stressed elsewhere (Stolorow
and Lachmann, 1980), projection as a defense actively employed to
ward off conflict can come into play only after a minimum of self,object
differentiation has been reliably achieved. Defensive translocation of
mental content across self,object boundaries requires that those
boundaries have been partially consolidated. When states of confusion
between self and object occur in the context of an archaic transference
configuration, this developmental achievement in self,boundary for,
mation cannot be presupposed. Such archaic transference states are
most often best understood not as manifestations of projective mecha,
nisms, but rather as remnants of developmental arrests at early modes
of experience in which self and object are incompletely distinguished.

Transference as Distortion

Implicit in the conceptions of transference discussed so far (as temporal

regression, displacement, or projection) is the idea that transference
involves a distortion of "reality," as the relationship with the analyst
becomes cast in images from the patient's unconscious infantile past or
infiltrated by the patient's endopsychic world of internal object re}a,
tions. This idea was made explicit in Sullivan's (1953) concept of
 TRANSFERENCE-THE ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE 35

"parataxic distortion," a process by which a present relationship is p r e ~

sumed to be "warped" by earlier ones. Certain Freudian authors, too
(e.g., Stein, 1966), have stated more or less directly that the goal of
analysis is to correct the patient's distortions of what the analyst
"knows" to be objectively real.
In another context (Stolorow and Lachmann, 1980), we have c a u ~
tioned against certain dangers embedded in the concept of a "real" rela~
tionship between analyst and patient, of which the transference is
presumed to be a distortion. Such dangers lie in the fact that j u d g ~
ments about what is "really true" about the analyst and what is distor~
tion of that "truth" are ordinarily left solely to the discretion of the
analyst-hardly a disinterested party. We find that therapists often
invoke the concept of distortion when the patient's feelings, whether
denigrating or admiring, contradict self~perceptions and expectations
that the therapist requires for his own well~being.
Gill (1982), whose views on this subject are compatible with our
own, criticizes the concept of transference as distortion because it
implies "that the patient is manufacturing his experience out of whole
cloth" (p. 117). "A more accurate formulation than 'distortion,' " Gill
argues, "is that the real situation is subject to interpretations other
than the one the patient has reached ... Indeed," he continues, "see~
ing the issue in this way rather than as a 'distortion' helps prevent the
error of assuming some absolute external reality of which the 'true'
knowledge must be gained" (p. 118). As we noted in chapter 1,
Schwaber (1983) also objects to the notion of transference as distortion
because of its embeddedness in "a hierarchically ordered two~reality
view" (p. 383)-one reality experienced by the patient and the other
"known" by the analyst to be more objectively true.
Transference, fully established, is a sampling of psychic reality in
purest culture. As such, it belongs to what Winnicott (1951) called "the
realm of illusion," an "intermediate area of experience, unchallenged in
respect of its belonging to inner or external reality . .. "(p. 242, emphasis
added). A prime example of this respect for illusory experience is the
attuned parent's attitude toward a child's transitional object. "It is a
matter of agreement between us and the baby," Winnicott wrote, "that
we will never ask the question 'Did you conceive of this or was it pre~
sented to you from without?' The important point is that no decision
on this point is expected. The question is not to be formulated" (pp.
239-240, emphasis added). One could scarcely find a better descrip~
36 CHAPTER THREE

tion of the proper analytic attitude for facilitating the unfolding and n,
lumination of the patient's transference experience.

Transference as Organiting Activity: A Reformulation

In our view, the concept of transference may be understood to refer to

all the ways in which the patient's experience of the analytic relation,
ship is shaped by his own psychological structures-by the distinctive,
archaically rooted configurations of self and object that unconsciously
organize his subjective universe. Thus transference, at the most gen,
erallevel of abstraction, is an instance of organizing activity-the pa,
tient assimilates (Piaget, 1954) the analytic relationship into the
thematic structures of his personal subjective world. The transference
is actually a microcosm of the patient's total psychological life, and the
analysis of the transference provides a focal point around which the
patterns dominating his existence as a whole can be clarified, under,
stood, and thereby transformed.
From this perspective, transference is neither a regression to nor a
displacement from the past, but rather an expression of the continuing
influence of organizing principles and imagery that crystallized out of
the patient's early formative experiences. Transference in its essence is
not a product of defensive projection, although defensive aims and
processes (including projection) certainly can and do contribute to its
vicissitudes. The concept of transference as organizing activity does
not imply that the patient's perceptions of the analytic relationship dis,
tort some more objectively true reality. Instead, it illuminates the spe,
cific shaping of these perceptions by the structures of meaning into
which the analyst and his actions become assimilated.
The concept of transference as organizing activity offers an impor,
tant clinical advantage over the other formulations in that it explicitly
invites attention to both the patient's psychological structures and the
input from the analyst that they assimilate (Wachtel, 1980). As Gill
(1982) repeatedly observes, it is essential to the analysis of transference
reactions to examine in detail the events occurring within the analytic
situation that evoke them. The transference reactions become intelli,
gible through comprehending the meanings that these events acquire
by virtue of their assimilation by the patient's subjective frame of
reference-by the affect,laden, archaically determined configurations
of self and object that pervade his psychological life.
 TRANSFERENCE-THE ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE 37

Another advantage of the concept of transference as organizing ac~

tivity is that it is sufficiently general and inclusive to embrace the m u l ~
tiplicity of its dimensions, the subject to which we now turn.

DIMENSIONS OF THE TRANSFERENCE

The Multiple Functions of Transference

We have suggested a reformulation of the concept of transference from

one that was encumbered by the psychoeconomic viewpoint and an
outdated archeological metaphor to one emphasizing the p s y c h o l o g i ~
cal process of organizing current experience. This process occurs
through the continual confluence of present events and previously
formed psychological structures. Thus, what shapes the experience of a
current situation, including the analytic situation, is derived from a
multitude of sources in the person's history, as well as from properties
of the current situation and the meanings into which these are assimi~
lated. Transference must therefore be understood from a m u l t i d i m e n ~
sional perspective, on the assumption that a multiplicity of thematic
structures and levels of psychological organization will have been m o ~
bilized by the analysis. Diff~rent dimensions of the transference will be~
come salient at different points in the analysis.
The concept of transference as organizing activity is an alternative
to the view that transference is the manifestation of a biologically
rooted compulsion to repeat the past. In addition, transference as
organizing activity focuses more narrowly on the specific patterning of
experience within the analytic relationship, to which both patient and
analyst contribute. Thus we have used the term in two ways. As a
higher order, supraordinate psychological principle, it replaces the bio~
logical repetition compulsion. Transference is conceived, not as a bio~
logically determined tendency to repeat the past ad infinitum for its
own sake, but rather as the expression of a universal psychological
striving to organize experience and construct meanings.
Within the narrower focus on the shaping of the analytic relation~
ship, the transference can subserve the entire gamut of psychological
functions that have been illuminated by clinical psychoanalysis. The
organization of the transference can (1) fulfill cherished wishes and ur~
gent desires, (2) provide moral restraint and s e l f ~ p u n i s h m e n t , (3) aid
38 CHAPTER THREE

adaptation to difficult realities, (4) maintain or restore precarious,

d i s i n t e g r a t i o n ~ p r o n e self and object imagoes, and (5) defensively ward
off configurations of experience that are felt to be conflictual or d a n ~
gerous. Viewing the transference in terms of its multiple functions e n ~
abies the analyst to examine what is most salient in the patient's
motivational hierarchy at any particular juncture.

The Relationship of Transference to Resistance

The relationship of transference to resistance is a complex one and has

been the source of disagreements among analysts since Freud's early
papers on the subject. Both Racker (1954) and Gill (1982) have pointed
out that embedded in Freud's writings on transference and resistance
are two distinct and contradictory theoretical models of the relation~
ship between them. Racker's (1954) discussion of these two different
viewpoints deserves quotation at some length:

[In the first view the transference] is regarded and interpreted as a

resistance to the work of remembrance, and is utilized as an in~
strument for remembering, but [in the second] the transference is
itself regarded as the decisive field in which the work is to be ac~
complished. The primary aim is, in the first case, remembering;
in the second, it is r e ~ e x p e r i e n c i n g [p. 75].
The two points of view may also be said to differ in that in the
former transference is regarded predominantly as arising from re~
sistance, whereas in the latter resistance is mainly a product of
transference. In the first, the analysand repeats so as not to re~
member; in the second, he repeats defences (resistances) so as not
to repeat traumatic or anxious experiences [pp. 75-76].

The first model of the relationship between transference and resist~

ance, in which repetition is a defense against remembering, is a relic of
Freud's archeological metaphor for the analytic process. As such, it
should be abandoned as a theoretical and therapeutic anachronism.
The second model, in which the experience of transference is central to
the analytic process (Strachey, 1934; Gill, 1982), is compatible with
our own conception of the transference as equivalent to the patient's
organizing activity and as a microcosm providing therapeutic access to
the patient's psychological world and history.
 TRANSFERENCE-THE ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE 39

From this latter perspective, what is the relationship of transference

to resistance? Gill (1982), embracing as we do Freud's second model of
this relationship, claims that "all resistance manifests itself by way of
transference" (p. 29) and that "the analysis of resistance is in effect the
analysis of transference" (p. 39). He then proposes two broad catego-
ries of relationship between transference and resistance: resistance to
the transference and resistance to the resolution of the transference.
Resistance to the transference is further subdivided into resistance to
the awareness of transference, as when transference feelings must be
inferred from allusions to them in extratransference material, and re-
sistance to involvement in transference.
Kohut (1971) also discussed resistance to involvement in transfer-
ence, specifically describing resistances to involvement in archaic
idealizing and mirror transferences. Such resistance, triggered by disin-
tegration anxiety and the need to preserve a fragmentation-prone self,
was seen by Kohut to arise from two sources. First, the patient may re-
sist involvement in the transference for fear that his emerging archaic
needs will meet with traumatic disappointments, rejections, and depri-
vations similar to those he had experienced as a child. Second, the pa-
tient may resist the transference, sensing his own structural vulner-
abilities, as when a need for merger is fended off for fear of the
extinction of individual selfhood.
An important implication of Kohut's overall viewpoint for the anal-
ysis of resistance to involvement in transference is that such resistance
cannot be viewed solely in terms of isolated intrapsychic mechanisms
located within the patient. Resistance to the transference based on
"the dread to repeat" (Ornstein, 1974) past traumas is always to some
extent evoked by actions of the analyst that the patient experiences as
unattuned to his emerging feelings or needs. Such experiences of
selfobject failure invariably trigger resistance because for the patient
they signal the impending recurrence of traumatically damaging child-
hood experiences. Since resistance to involvement in transference is in
part a product of the patient's organizing activity, it is actually already
an expression of the transference.
Gill's second broad category of relationship between transference
and resistance-resistance to the resolution of the transference-
seems to us to embody an assumption that analysis seeks to enable the
patient to "renounce" infantile fixations as these are worked through in
the transference, and that this goal of renunciation engenders resist-
40 CHAPTER THREE

ance. Later we shall present our objections to this notion that transfer~
ence is to be resolved or renounced. In the present context we wish to
stress that, in our view, the persistence of transference is not primarily
the product of resistance. It is the result of the continuing influence of
established organizing principles when alternative modes of e x p e r i e n c ~
ing the self and object world have not yet evolved or become suffi~
ciently consolidated. We would thus replace Gill's "resistance to the
resolution of the transference" with the concept of resistance based on
transference. This would encompass all of the anticipated dangers and
resulting constrictions of the patient's psychological life that appear in
direct consequence of the transference having become firmly estab~
lished, including those forfeitures of self~experience that the patient b e ~
lieves are necessary to maintain the analytic relationship. As we
elaborate in detail in the chapters that follow, such resistance cannot
be understood psychoanalytically apart from the intersubjective c o n ~
texts in which it arises and recedes.

The Developmental Dimension of Transference

Recent advances in psychoanalytic developmental psychology have

highlighted the central importance of developmental transformations
in the child's organizing activity, leading to the progressive articula~
tion, differentiation, integration, and consolidation of the subjective
world. The conception of transference as organizing activity can e n ~
compass this developmental dimension as an aspect of the analytic re~
lationship in a way that earlier concepts of transference cannot. We
refer to instances in which the patient seeks to establish with the a n a ~
lyst a nexus of archaic relatedness in which aborted structuralization
processes can be resumed and arrested psychological growth can be
completed.
A major contribution to our understanding of the developmental
aspect of transference was Kohut's (1971, 1977) formulation of the
selfobject transferences, wherein the patient attempts to reestablish
with the analyst ties that were traumatically and p h a s e ~ i n a p p r o p r i a t e ~
ly ruptured during the formative years, and upon which he comes to
rely once again for the restoration and maintenance of the sense of self.
We have come to believe that it has been a conceptual error to consider
the term selfobject transference to refer to a type of transference c h a r a c ~
teristic of a certain type of patient. Instead, we now use the phrase
 TRANSFERENCE-THE ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE 41

selfobject transference to refer to a dimension of all transference, which

may fluctuate in the extent to which it occupies a position of figure or
ground in the patient's experience of the analytic relationship. Kohut's
work has illuminated the unique therapeutic importance of u n d e r ~
standing and transforming those transference configurations in which
the selfobject dimension is figure-in which, that is, the restoration or
maintenance of self~organization is primary in motivating the patient's
tie to the analyst. Even when this is not the case, however, and other
dimensions of experience and human motivation- such as conflicts
over loving, hating, desiring, and competing-emerge as most salient
in structuring the transference, the selfobject dimension is never a b ~
sent. So long as it is undisturbed, it operates silently in the b a c k ~
ground, enabling the patient to make contact with frightening and
conflictual feelings.
An important implication of this conceptualization is that the a n a ~
lyst must continually assess the often subtly shifting f i g u r e ~ g r o u n d rela~
tionships among the selfobject and other dimensions of the transfer~
ence that occur throughout the course of treatment. The assessment of
what dimensions and psychological functions constitute figure and
what constitute ground at any particular juncture of the analysis will
directly determine the content and timing of transference i n t e r p r e t a ~
dons (see Stolorow and Lachmann, 1980, 1981).
A second implication of this conceptualization is that the selfobject
or developmental dimension of transference must be included in any
effort to delineate the process of cure in psychoanalysis. We shall re~
turn to this issue later.

TRANSFERENCE AND THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS

The Analyst's Contribution to the Transference

While a review of the voluminous literature on the role of the transfer~

ence in the therapeutic relationship would take us beyond the inten~
tions of this chapter, two broadly contrasting positions can be
outlined. On one hand, transference has been understood as e m a n a t ~
ing entirely from the patient. The belief, implicit in the archeological
model, that the patient makes a "false connection" or engages in "dis~
tortion" exemplifies this position. The analyst who adheres to this view
42 CHAPTER THREE

will exercise care lest the transference become "contaminated." The

recommendation that the analyst must avoid offering any gratification
of the patient's infantile wishes will be strictly followed, so that these
"frustrated" wishes can then emerge from repression and gain verbal
expression. Abstinence is equated here with neutrality, on the assump,
tion that the active frustration of the patient's wishes and needs consti,
tutes a "neutral" act that neither colors the transference nor affects
how these wishes and needs become manifest in the therapeutic rela,
tionship. Even Strachey's (1934) oft,quoted position that only transfer,
ence interpetations are mutative is consistent with this viewpoint,
because it implies that nontransference interpretations and other be,
haviors of the analyst will not alter the transference neurosis.
It is our view, by contrast, that any action, nonaction, or restrained
action of the analyst can affect the transference on a variety oflevels of
psychological organization, according to its meanings for the patient.
Furthermore, the analyst's attitudes and responses will influence
which dimensions of the transference predominate at any given time.
The relentlessly abstinent analyst, for example, who believes that the
patient's infantile wishes must be exposed and renounced, will ob,
struct the developmental or selfobject dimension of the transference,
and may in addition evoke intense conflicts over primitive hostility-
an artifact of the therapeutic stance (Wolf, 1976). On the other hand,
the analyst who strives actually to fulfill the patient's archaic needs
may impede the development of more advanced modes of organization
in the transference.
The contribution of the patient's transference to the production of
the analyst's countertransference has found its place within psychoan,
alytic clinical theory. We are emphasizing here that the countertrans,
ference (broadly conceptualized as a manifestation of the analyst's
psychological structures and organizing activity} has a decisive impact
in shaping the transference and codetermining which of its specific di,
mensions will occupy the experiential foreground of the analysis.
Transference and countertransference together form an intersubjec,
tive system of reciprocal mutual influence.
A second position, which arose in opposition to the view that trans,
ference is derived solely from the psychology of the patient, recom,
mends that the analyst acknowledge his "actual" contribution to the
transference. A typical example might involve a patient who reveals
that he felt the analyst was angry with him during the prior session. An
analyst who adheres to this second position might privately review the
 TRANSFERENCE-THE ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE 43

events of the previous session and determine for himself whether, in~
deed, he may have directly or indirectly conveyed annoyance to the
patient. He might then acknowledge the "reality" of the patient's per~
ception and then proceed to analyze the patient's reactions.
A disadvantage of the first position (that transference emanates e n ~
tirely from the patient) is that it requires the patient to relinquish his
organizing principles and psychic reality in favor of the analyst's. We
object to the second view because, like the first, it places the analyst in
the position of evaluating the veracity of the patient's perceptions, and
the patient's experience is validated only because it coincides with that
of the analyst. At its worst, this approach can tip the therapeutic bal~
ance in the direction of making the analyst's "reality" an explanation
for the patient's reactions. The danger here lies in endowing the p a ~
tient's perceptions with "truth" and "reality," not through the analytic
process, but through the analyst's judgments.
Our own view is different from each of the two foregoing positions.
When transference is conceptualized as organizing activity, it is a ~
sumed that the patient's experience of the therapeutic relationship is
always shaped both by inputs from the analyst and by the structures of
meaning into which these are assimilated by the patient. We would
therefore do away with the rule of abstinence and its corresponding
concept of neutrality and replace them with an attitude of sustained
empathic inquiry, which seeks understanding of the patient's e x p r e s ~
sions from within the perspective of the patient's subjective frame of
reference. From this vantage point, the reality of the patient's p e r c e p ~
tions of the analyst is neither debated nor confirmed. Instead, these
perceptions serve as points of departure for an exploration of the
meanings and organizing principles that structure the patient's psychic
reality.
This investigatory stance will itself have an impact on the transfer~
ence. The patient's feeling of being understood, for example, can re~
vive archaic oneness or merger experiences, which in turn may
produce therapeutic effects (Silverman, Lachmann, and Milich, 1982).
This brings us once again to the developmental dimension of the trans~
ference and its therapeutic action.

Transference Cures

An understanding of the developmental or selfobject dimension of the

transference sheds new light on the role of transference in the process
44 CHAPTER THREE

of psychoanalytic cure. Once established, the selfobject dimension of

the transference is experienced to some degree by the patient as a
"holding environment" (Winnicott, 1965), an archaic intersubjective
context reinstating developmental processes of psychological differen,
tiation and integration that were aborted and arrested during the pa,
tient's early formative years. Thus, when protected from protracted
disruptions, the transference bond in and of itself can directly promote
a process of psychological growth and structure formation. In our
view, therefore, the singular importance of analyzing the patient's ex,
periences of ruptures in the transference bond is found in the impact of
such analysis in consistently mending the broken archaic tie and
thereby permitting the arrested developmental process to resume once
again.
We contend that it is the transference, especially in its develop-
mental or selfobject dimension, that lends to interpretations their mu-
tative power. Consider, for example, the transference context in which
a traditional resistance analysis takes place. Experienced analysts
know that clarifying the nature of a patient's resistance has no discerni,
ble therapeutic result unless the analyst is also able to identify the sub-
jective danger or emotional conflict that makes the resistance a felt
necessity. It is only when the analyst shows that he knows the patient's
fear and anguish and thereby becomes established to some degree as a
calming, containing selfobject- a new object separate and distinct
from the dreaded parental imagoes-that conflictual regions of the pa,
tient's subjective life can emerge more freely.
The term transference cure has traditionally been applied pejora,
tively to indicate that a patient has "recovered" because of the un,
analyzed influence of an unconscious instinctual tie to the analyst.
What we are stressing here, in contrast, is the ubiquitous curative role
played by the silent, at times unanalyzed selfobject dimension of the
transference. We hold that every mutative therapeutic moment, even
when based on interpretation of resistance and conflict, includes a sig,
nificant element of selfobject transference cure.

Resolution of Transference

What is the ultimate fate of the transference in a successful psycho-

analysis? Various authors have recommended that in the termination
phase of an analysis the transference (especially the positive transfer,
 TRANSFERENCE-THE ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE 45

ence) must be resolved or dissolved through interpretation. Usually

this means that the infantile wishes toward the analyst must be
renounced.
The analytic relationship is a peculiar one in many respects. It is
unique in being formed for a specific purpose- a therapeutic purpose
for one of the participants. The requirement that it should end with-
out residual transference feelings remaining seems to us to be unwar-
ranted. Indeed, attempts to eliminate all traces of the transferences
that have evolved in the course of analysis can adversely affect and
even derail an otherwise successful treatment. Often it is believed that
the transference must be dissolved for the sake of the patient's auton-
omy and that any residual transference feelings would constitute an
infantilizing element, potentially undermining independence and ob-
ject choices. In contrast, when transference is viewed as an expression
of a universal human organizing tendency, analysis aims not for re-
nunciation, but rather for the acceptance and integration of the trans-
ference experience into the fabric of the patient's analytically ex-
panded psychological organization. The transference, thus integrated,
greatly enriches the patient's affective life and contributes a repertoire
of therapeutically achieved developmental attainments.
With regard to so-called infantile wishes, needs, and fantasies, it has
never been adequately demonstrated that they can or should be re-
nounced. Within an expanded and more evolved psychological organ-
ization, they can be welcomed, just as any valued possession can find a
place on the mantelpiece, to be used on special occasions. The re-
maining love and hate for the analyst, including their archaic roots,
can thus be acknowledged and accepted, without their having either
to be requited or negated, or presumed to constitute an interference
with the patient's current living. Ordinarily, after treatment has
ended, the residual analytic transference will gradually recede from its
preeminent position, relatively central in the patient's psychological
world, to a position where it serves as a bridge to a more complex, dif-
ferentiated, and richly experienced life.

CONCLUSION

Transference in its essence refers neither to regression, displacement,

projection, nor distortion, but rather to· the assimilation of the ana-
lytic relationship into the thematic structures of the patient's personal
46 CHAPTER THREE

subjective world. Thus conceived, transference is an expression of the

universal psychological striving to organize experience and create
meanings. This broad conceptualization of transference holds n u m e r ~
ous advantages over earlier ones. It can encompass the multiple d i m e n ~
sions of transference, including especially its developmental di~
mension, and it sheds light on the relationship of transference to
resistance. It clarifies the contributions of both analyst and patient in
shaping the patient's experience of the therapeutic relationship. It illu~
minates the role of the transference in the process of psychoanalytic
cure and in the patient's life after analysis is completed. Most i m p o r ~
tant of all, the concept of transference as organizing activity, by e n ~
couraging an unwavering inquiry into the patient's subjective frame of
reference, opens a clear and unobstructed window to the patient's psy~
chological world, and to its expansion, evolution, and enrichment.